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rockwoodA new series of articles to break things up a bit. This series (which isn't likely to come out extremely regularly) will cover my own new, unofficial ideas for Cortex RPG games, optional rules, and similar.
Disclaimer and notice: If I ever get around to writing my own Cortex sourcebook, I might include some of these ideas, but I put them up here for free in the hopes that they'll see use by other folk, too. Please feel free to link to them or use them yourself. If you want to repost them elsewhere, or you draw heavily on them for your own freely available work, I would both love to hear about your project and would also appreciate being given credit for whatever inspiration I provided, but don't worry about it too much. My only restriction is that you do not publish my writing for profit, or put it into something which requires a subscription or purchase to view, such as a commercial e-zine or similar.
This one offers a new system for character advancement, based upon the passing of time rather than the accumulation of Advancement Points. It can be used as a substitute for normal advancement, or simply to supplement the original system.
(Unofficial) Cortex System Optional Rule: Chronological Advancement
Nathan Rockwood
Version 1.0
While Advancement Points work just fine for most games, they tend to represent learning ‘in the field’—or in the dungeon. That works best for games with characters who are constantly acting, engaged in a continuous struggle without any breaks—usually a direct, open conflict. On the other hand, some campaigns might follow a group of heroes who travel from place to place, perform investigations that take significant time, or have intermittent ‘jobs’ followed by a month or two of cruising through space. Advancement Points don’t effectively model such situations, since this ‘down time’ doesn’t earn AP for anyone—despite the fact that the characters in a similar TV show, book, or other story could well be using this time to practice and hone their Skills.
This optional rule replaces the standard Advancement Point system with a chronological advancement system. However, while Game Masters could choose to use it for their entire campaign, they could also decide to use it in conjunction with the standard AP method presented in the Cortex core rulebook. In that case, the GM would award AP as they see fit after each session, but then also allow chronological advancement when significant downtime occurs. However, if using both systems together, it is recommended that the GM not allow periods of downtime shorter than one week to count for chronological advancement. Normally, even such brief periods could be accumulated towards advancement, but when using both systems together, this cut-off helps mark the distinction between activity (time spent earning AP) and Downtime (time translated into currency of a sort).
Earning Downtime
How much Downtime a character receives is easy to find out: how much time has passed between adventures, or since the last job? Each character receives that much Downtime.
This system works best when each play session contains or is divided by at least a small amount of otherwise unoccupied time. However, GMs are free to award ‘bonus downtime’ as they would AP, though perhaps in slightly smaller doses. After each session, look at the reasons the Cortex core rulebook lists for awarding AP. For every 2 AP the characters would have earned, grant them an additional week of Downtime. Bonus Downtime does not actually cause time to pass, since it represents the learning and growth accomplished during play-time.
Spending Downtime
Using this system, characters receive Downtime during which they can train Attributes, Skills, and Traits. The smallest ‘useful’ unit of Downtime is two weeks, but GMs should be willing to let players record or make use of smaller units of Downtime—for example, if a week passes between two adventures, there isn’t enough time to fully train even a Skill Specialty, but if a character spends that week training anyway, they only have to spend one more week on it to gain the advancement. Their player can mark a week of Downtime devoted to partial training of that Skill.
It costs different amounts of Downtime to train Attributes, Skills and Traits.
Attributes
When buying up an Attribute, the character must buy each level sequentially; if they already have Strength d6 and want a Strength d10, they must first purchase Strength d8; except by special GM permission, an Attribute cannot increase by more than 1 Step per advancement session. Each Attribute Step increase costs 4 months of Downtime. Levels above d12 may cost twice the normal amount of Downtime, if your game uses that optional rule.
Skills, General
Like buying an Attribute, Skills must be bought up 1 Step at a time, and cannot increase by more than one Step per advancement session without special permission. Each Step increase costs 1 month of Downtime. As usual, General Skills only exist up to the d6 level; after that, Specialties must be purchased.
Skills, Specialty
Specialty Skills must also be purchased 1 Step at a time, and cannot increase by more than 1 Step per advancement session without special permission. Each increase costs 2 weeks of Downtime, though levels above d12 may be doubled in cost (1 month of Downtime per increase over d12) if your game uses that optional rule.
Traits, Assets
Purchasing Assets is slightly different from purchasing Attributes and Skills, since they can have sequential ratings, fixed ratings, or a small range of possible Steps. Unlike Attributes and Skills, you need not purchase a new Asset at d2, then wait, then upgrade it to d4, and so on—you can immediately purchase a new Asset at any legal level (which levels are available depends upon the Asset in question). However, you must still pay for each individual Step the Asset is worth. If you have to or choose to ‘skip’ Steps when purchasing or upgrading it (such as when purchasing an Asset at d6 that has no d2 or d4 rating), add up the cost as if you were simultaneously purchasing the intervening Steps as well. Each Step costs 3 months of Downtime.
For example, purchasing a new Asset at the d2 rating takes 3 months; if you then upgrade that Asset to the d4 rating, it takes another 3 months. However, you could also have chosen to buy that new Asset at d4 initially, spending 6 months all at once. Whether you buy it all at once or upgrade it over several sessions, the total cost in Downtime will be the same.
Traits, Complications
Downtime can be spent to erase a character’s Complications. Generally, it takes the same amount of time to remove or downgrade a Complication as it would have to purchase or upgrade in the other direction. That means that each Step you reduce the Complication by costs 3 months, and that you must reduce it to a ‘legal’ level (which depends on the Complication in question).
For example, a Complication rated only at d10 would take 15 months to remove entirely, and you would have to accumulate the whole 15 months (possibly over several sessions) before the Complication was affected.. However, if it was instead a Complication with a rating of d2+, you could purchase it down sequentially, reducing it by 1 Step every time you accumulated 3 months of Downtime.
Optional Rule: Some GMs may let characters take Complications during play in order to earn extra Downtime. More time doesn’t actually pass, but the character learns more in the time they do have, effectively increasing their Downtime.
The player must come up with a convincing reason for their character to learn quickly and also earn the Complication they picked. For example, a thief might want extra Downtime to increase his Covert/Lock Picking Skill, and so decides that his character gets caught by the police in the middle of a few months of Downtime! He takes the Complication Branded at the level he thinks is best, and explains that he broke out of his cell by picking the lock with a small piece of wire he found, learning a few new tricks in the process.
If using this optional rule, each Step of the Complication chosen earns the player 1 month of Downtime. The overall is a net ‘loss,’ but sometimes it might be worth it. Also, once the character has done this, they cannot use this option again until they have bought off or otherwise removed the Complication they gained from it the first time. Because this can eat up a lot of Downtime, most characters shouldn’t use it more than once or twice.
Traits, Bundles
Purchasing a Bundle can be tricky, and is subject to GM discretion, since Bundles can have either positive or negative Step ratings. If a Bundle is largely ‘beneficial’ and has a positive rating, it should probably be purchased as an Asset with the given Step Rating. If a Bundle is largely ‘harmful’ and has a negative or ‘d0’ rating, GMs may consider either letting the character receive the Bundle with no Downtime cost (as if it were a Complication), or may choose to charge the player for the single highest-rated Asset included with the Bundle.
Hope you enjoyed it! Comments, criticism, and discussion are welcomed, as always; this will likely see revision sometime in the future.
Blessed be,
~Nathan
Disclaimer and notice: If I ever get around to writing my own Cortex sourcebook, I might include some of these ideas, but I put them up here for free in the hopes that they'll see use by other folk, too. Please feel free to link to them or use them yourself. If you want to repost them elsewhere, or you draw heavily on them for your own freely available work, I would both love to hear about your project and would also appreciate being given credit for whatever inspiration I provided, but don't worry about it too much. My only restriction is that you do not publish my writing for profit, or put it into something which requires a subscription or purchase to view, such as a commercial e-zine or similar.
This one offers a new system for character advancement, based upon the passing of time rather than the accumulation of Advancement Points. It can be used as a substitute for normal advancement, or simply to supplement the original system.
(Unofficial) Cortex System Optional Rule: Chronological Advancement
Nathan Rockwood
Version 1.0
While Advancement Points work just fine for most games, they tend to represent learning ‘in the field’—or in the dungeon. That works best for games with characters who are constantly acting, engaged in a continuous struggle without any breaks—usually a direct, open conflict. On the other hand, some campaigns might follow a group of heroes who travel from place to place, perform investigations that take significant time, or have intermittent ‘jobs’ followed by a month or two of cruising through space. Advancement Points don’t effectively model such situations, since this ‘down time’ doesn’t earn AP for anyone—despite the fact that the characters in a similar TV show, book, or other story could well be using this time to practice and hone their Skills.
This optional rule replaces the standard Advancement Point system with a chronological advancement system. However, while Game Masters could choose to use it for their entire campaign, they could also decide to use it in conjunction with the standard AP method presented in the Cortex core rulebook. In that case, the GM would award AP as they see fit after each session, but then also allow chronological advancement when significant downtime occurs. However, if using both systems together, it is recommended that the GM not allow periods of downtime shorter than one week to count for chronological advancement. Normally, even such brief periods could be accumulated towards advancement, but when using both systems together, this cut-off helps mark the distinction between activity (time spent earning AP) and Downtime (time translated into currency of a sort).
Earning Downtime
How much Downtime a character receives is easy to find out: how much time has passed between adventures, or since the last job? Each character receives that much Downtime.
This system works best when each play session contains or is divided by at least a small amount of otherwise unoccupied time. However, GMs are free to award ‘bonus downtime’ as they would AP, though perhaps in slightly smaller doses. After each session, look at the reasons the Cortex core rulebook lists for awarding AP. For every 2 AP the characters would have earned, grant them an additional week of Downtime. Bonus Downtime does not actually cause time to pass, since it represents the learning and growth accomplished during play-time.
Sidebar: Justifying Downtime
Some GMs may be content to let players ‘spend’ their Downtime as they see fit, with minimal restrictions, but others may require a justification or an in-game effort of some kind before characters can actually receive their advancements. Here are some recommendations, with increasing levels of restriction.
A) Players can choose to advance their characters as they see fit, with two exceptions. For the Skills listed as Trained Only, the character must find a source of training: a night-class, a teacher or mentor figure, a good set of books, or similar. For certain supernatural or unusual Traits, the character will likewise have to find a ‘source’ (for example, cybernetic implants would have to be installed by someone; or a character learning magic might have to find a wizard or an old grimoire). Again, this only applies to Trained Only Skills and very rare Traits; most others can be advanced at will without explanation, as can Attributes.
B) Players must describe or roleplay how their character spends their Downtime, and will most likely require a mentor, source of knowledge, or special trainer to advance their Attributes, Skills and Traits—though these are primarily descriptive and should be automatic, as long as what the player describes fits within the game and setting. Learning Trained Only Skills, or particularly unusual Traits, may require a little bit of danger, be expensive, or take the use of Plot Points to arrange.
C) Advancements have to be arranged for mechanically, in one way or another. Characters might have to convince someone to teach them, have an Asset that grants them a mentor, purchase study materials, or similar. When raising Skills and Attributes, characters may justify their advances simply by arranging for intense practice sessions, but this only allows characters to advance up to a rating of d6, and it doesn’t work for Trained Only Skills or any Traits at all. It need not always be difficult to find the resources necessary—and GMs should never make it impossible to gain certain advances unless they made it clear at the beginning of the game that specific things would not be allowed—but dice may be rolled, Plot Points might have to be spent, and cash may be expended. It is worth noting that some situations might make it temporarily impossible to study certain Skills or gain certain Traits. For example, if the characters are all tossed in jail, they might be able exercise their Strength at the gym or train their Knowledge at the library, but they sure won’t be practicing their Guns!
Spending Downtime
Using this system, characters receive Downtime during which they can train Attributes, Skills, and Traits. The smallest ‘useful’ unit of Downtime is two weeks, but GMs should be willing to let players record or make use of smaller units of Downtime—for example, if a week passes between two adventures, there isn’t enough time to fully train even a Skill Specialty, but if a character spends that week training anyway, they only have to spend one more week on it to gain the advancement. Their player can mark a week of Downtime devoted to partial training of that Skill.
It costs different amounts of Downtime to train Attributes, Skills and Traits.
Attributes
When buying up an Attribute, the character must buy each level sequentially; if they already have Strength d6 and want a Strength d10, they must first purchase Strength d8; except by special GM permission, an Attribute cannot increase by more than 1 Step per advancement session. Each Attribute Step increase costs 4 months of Downtime. Levels above d12 may cost twice the normal amount of Downtime, if your game uses that optional rule.
Skills, General
Like buying an Attribute, Skills must be bought up 1 Step at a time, and cannot increase by more than one Step per advancement session without special permission. Each Step increase costs 1 month of Downtime. As usual, General Skills only exist up to the d6 level; after that, Specialties must be purchased.
Skills, Specialty
Specialty Skills must also be purchased 1 Step at a time, and cannot increase by more than 1 Step per advancement session without special permission. Each increase costs 2 weeks of Downtime, though levels above d12 may be doubled in cost (1 month of Downtime per increase over d12) if your game uses that optional rule.
Traits, Assets
Purchasing Assets is slightly different from purchasing Attributes and Skills, since they can have sequential ratings, fixed ratings, or a small range of possible Steps. Unlike Attributes and Skills, you need not purchase a new Asset at d2, then wait, then upgrade it to d4, and so on—you can immediately purchase a new Asset at any legal level (which levels are available depends upon the Asset in question). However, you must still pay for each individual Step the Asset is worth. If you have to or choose to ‘skip’ Steps when purchasing or upgrading it (such as when purchasing an Asset at d6 that has no d2 or d4 rating), add up the cost as if you were simultaneously purchasing the intervening Steps as well. Each Step costs 3 months of Downtime.
For example, purchasing a new Asset at the d2 rating takes 3 months; if you then upgrade that Asset to the d4 rating, it takes another 3 months. However, you could also have chosen to buy that new Asset at d4 initially, spending 6 months all at once. Whether you buy it all at once or upgrade it over several sessions, the total cost in Downtime will be the same.
Traits, Complications
Downtime can be spent to erase a character’s Complications. Generally, it takes the same amount of time to remove or downgrade a Complication as it would have to purchase or upgrade in the other direction. That means that each Step you reduce the Complication by costs 3 months, and that you must reduce it to a ‘legal’ level (which depends on the Complication in question).
For example, a Complication rated only at d10 would take 15 months to remove entirely, and you would have to accumulate the whole 15 months (possibly over several sessions) before the Complication was affected.. However, if it was instead a Complication with a rating of d2+, you could purchase it down sequentially, reducing it by 1 Step every time you accumulated 3 months of Downtime.
Optional Rule: Some GMs may let characters take Complications during play in order to earn extra Downtime. More time doesn’t actually pass, but the character learns more in the time they do have, effectively increasing their Downtime.
The player must come up with a convincing reason for their character to learn quickly and also earn the Complication they picked. For example, a thief might want extra Downtime to increase his Covert/Lock Picking Skill, and so decides that his character gets caught by the police in the middle of a few months of Downtime! He takes the Complication Branded at the level he thinks is best, and explains that he broke out of his cell by picking the lock with a small piece of wire he found, learning a few new tricks in the process.
If using this optional rule, each Step of the Complication chosen earns the player 1 month of Downtime. The overall is a net ‘loss,’ but sometimes it might be worth it. Also, once the character has done this, they cannot use this option again until they have bought off or otherwise removed the Complication they gained from it the first time. Because this can eat up a lot of Downtime, most characters shouldn’t use it more than once or twice.
Traits, Bundles
Purchasing a Bundle can be tricky, and is subject to GM discretion, since Bundles can have either positive or negative Step ratings. If a Bundle is largely ‘beneficial’ and has a positive rating, it should probably be purchased as an Asset with the given Step Rating. If a Bundle is largely ‘harmful’ and has a negative or ‘d0’ rating, GMs may consider either letting the character receive the Bundle with no Downtime cost (as if it were a Complication), or may choose to charge the player for the single highest-rated Asset included with the Bundle.
Sidebar: Dealing with Traits and Bundles
While it may realistically be possible for a character to spend time ‘learning’ certain Traits or Bundles (for example, a Talent might discovered through practice, and with enough effort they might build up their ‘family’ as a Crime Lord), others don’t represent the kinds of things that a character could learn, practice, or acquire on their own (for example, Things Go Smooth). In some cases, the character might even disagree with the player about WANTING the Trait or Bundle (the player might want their character to become a vampire, since that would be cool—but the character doesn’t even BELIEVE in vampires)!
So how could Downtime be spent to acquire these things? Out-of-game, mechanically speaking, in exactly the same way any other Traits are bought. In-game, however, it’s all about description and roleplaying.
For example, that player who wants to make his character into a vampire? Let’s say Vampirism is a Bundle with a rating of d2 (lots of Complications in there). That means it costs 3 months of Downtime. The player decides that his character, in an attempt to earn extra cash to pay down loans, gets a job on the night-shift security detail for a warehouse. ‘Unfortunately,’ after 3 months on the job, he has a run-in with an intruder... who brings him into the ranks of the undead.
As another example, perhaps that character who wants Things Go Smooth has a run-in with a strange fortune teller after several months down on his luck, unemployed and on the street—and then gets a sudden lucky break.
Coming up with an explanation should be no more difficult for the player and the character alike than it would be for a more ‘normal’ Trait or Bundle, based on the level of restriction the game has been operating under (see Sidebar: Justifying Downtime).
It should also be noted that Bundles and Traits that the player does not intentionally ask for or select should be free. If his character is kidnaped and turned into a Vampire as part of the game’s plot or story, then he need not spend his Downtime on it. Things like this should rarely happen, just as characters should not constantly be afflicted with new Complications, but it may be reasonable under the right circumstances.
Hope you enjoyed it! Comments, criticism, and discussion are welcomed, as always; this will likely see revision sometime in the future.
Blessed be,
~Nathan
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bundles?
Date: 2008-05-29 12:46 pm (UTC)Re: bundles?
Date: 2008-05-30 01:43 pm (UTC)Blessed be,
~Nathan
Re: bundles?
Date: 2008-05-31 10:04 pm (UTC)Re: bundles?
Date: 2008-06-01 12:02 pm (UTC)That said, I do agree that Bundles are a pretty cool option, for both PC and NPC creation. I think they'll serve the Cortex game engine very well in the future. They also provide a way for players and GMs to create new content that falls within the official rules even more so than homemade Traits do.
Blessed be,
~Nathan
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-29 05:58 pm (UTC)Now, if I could just get him away from work to read them....
I wish I could offer some concrit, but there isn't really a thing I can do about it. Your writing is consistently excellent, you explain things in an easy-to-understand manner and you keep it all from being dry and boring with your sense of humor and enthusiasm.
Please keep these articles coming. ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-30 01:44 pm (UTC)Speaking of which, I think I'll be doing Part III of the Evolutions series today...
Blessed be,
~Nathan
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-30 05:00 pm (UTC)